[Peace-discuss] Fwd: US Planning to Recruit One in 24 Americans as Citizen Spies-Sydney Morning Herald-15 July 2002

[Peter Miller]

>Date: Mon, 15 Jul 2002 16:29:08 -0700
>From: labornews <labornews at igc.org>
>Subject: US Planning to Recruit One in 24 Americans as Citizen  Spies-Sydney
>  Morning Herald-15 July 2002
>To: UPPNET <labornews at igc.org>
>User-Agent: Microsoft Outlook Express Macintosh Edition - 5.01 (1630)
>
>                http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/07/14/1026185141232.html
>US Planning to Recruit One in 24 Americans as Citizen Spies
>
>Sydney Morning Herald
>15 July 2002
>
>US Planning to Recruit One in 24 Americans as Citizen Spies
>By Ritt Goldstein
>
>The Bush Administration aims to recruit millions of United States
>citizens as domestic informants in a program likely to alarm civil
>liberties groups.
>
>The Terrorism Information and Prevention System, or TIPS, means the
>US will have a higher percentage of citizen informants than the former 
>East Germany through the infamous Stasi secret police. The program would 
>use a minimum of 4 per cent of Americans to report "suspicious activity".
>
>Civil liberties groups have already warned that, with the passage earlier 
>this year of the Patriot Act, there is potential for abusive, large-scale 
>investigations of US citizens.
>
>As with the Patriot Act, TIPS is being pursued as part of the so-called 
>war against terrorism. It is a Department of Justice project.
>
>Highlighting the scope of the surveillance network, TIPS volunteers
>are being recruited primarily from among those whose work provides
>access to homes, businesses or transport systems. Letter carriers,
>utility employees, truck drivers and train conductors are among those
>named as targeted recruits.
>
>A pilot program, described on the government Web site .citizencorps.gov, 
>is scheduled to start next month in 10 cities,
>with 1 million informants participating in the first stage. Assuming
>the program is initiated in the 10 largest US cities, that will be 1
>million informants for a total population of almost 24 million, or
>one in 24 people.
>
>Historically, informant systems have been the tools of non-democratic
>states. According to a 1992 report by Harvard University's Project on
>Justice, the accuracy of informant reports is problematic, with some
>informants having embellished the truth, and others suspected of
>having fabricated their reports.
>
>Present Justice Department procedures mean that informant reports
>will enter databases for future reference and/or action. The information 
>will then be broadly available within the department, related agencies and 
>local police forces. The targeted individual will remain unaware of the 
>existence of the report and of its contents.
>
>The Patriot Act already provides for a person's home to be searched
>without that person being informed that a search was ever performed,
>or of any surveillance devices that were implanted.
>
>At state and local levels the TIPS program will be co-ordinated by
>the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which was given sweeping new 
>powers, including internment, as part of the Reagan Administration's 
>national security initiatives. Many key figures of the Reagan era are part 
>of the Bush Administration.
>
>The creation of a US "shadow government", operating in secret, was
>another Reagan national security initiative.
>
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